“We’re not a gang, we’re a motorcycle club.” – Clay
Oftentimes season premieres have a built-in disadvantage in comparison to episodes plucked from the middle or end of a season. Premieres, by nature, come immediately after finales – episodes in which climaxes are reached and loose ends of plot and story lines are tied up. Therefore, premieres will be stuck with the unenviable, often tedious task of setting up new stories – “arranging the pieces on the chessboard,” if you will. To make matters worse, hardcore fans of the show are forced to sit through half-assed reintroductions of their favorite characters for the benefit of hypothetical new viewers.
This isn’t always the case, however. If a show is good, the writers will often work a compelling cliffhanger into the prior season’s finale to bridge the gap between seasons. Breaking Bad, for instance, ended its third season with Jesse pointing a gun at Gale’s head. So we knew going into Season Four pretty much where we would pick back up. This approach isn’t a good way of picking up new viewers (because they will immediately be lost), but screw them, right? “NS,” last season’s Sons of Anarchy finale was so awesome that it basically saved the entire third season from being a complete disappointment. Also, it came to a pretty epic, open-ended conclusion — the crew killing Stahl, then heading off to prison — so the new season already had an established jumping off point. No need to set up chess pieces, no time wasted getting balls rolling.
“Out” opens with the type of scene that has become synonymous with the “Sons of Anarchy formula”: shots of multiple characters in different locations doing things that function as exposition, while a seriously serious song plays in its entirety. It’s sort of like a montage, but not really. It’s kind of tough to explain these scenes properly. It’s one of those things that when you see it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
In the opening pseudo-montage we see Jax’s sons Abel and Thomas. Abel has grown up quite a bit since the last we saw him. He’s walking and his motor skills are refined enough to pull a note out of Tara’s purse and doodle on it with a crayon. Unfortunately for Tara (Maggie Siff), the note is from Maureen Ashby and relates to the John Teller letters she sent home with him from Belfast. It’s a pretty obvious piece of foreshadowing that suggests it’s only a matter of time until the letters see the light of day.
We also see the guys from SAMCRO preparing to leave prison and return home to Charming. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is sporting a new, short haircut and a large, stab-wound scar on his abdomen. The one SOA member who isn’t leaving the prison in Stockton is Otto. Otto (Kurt Sutter) is a lifer and the opening scene shows him slicing his wrist open with a razor blade smuggled in by a guard. It’s not immediately clear why he’s harming himself, but by the end of the episode we get his rationale.
On the way into town, the guys ride past a construction zone — the future site of a housing development on the outskirts of Charming. The billboard in front of the site advertises Charming Heights as “Small Town Living, Modern Luxury” and indicates that the project is a partnership of Hale and Associates and Oswalt Construction. We learn later that Oswalt (Patrick St. Esprit) lost millions of dollars’ worth of land to eminent domain and the construction contract is his recompense.
When the guys make it to Charming’s main drag, a police barricade is waiting for them. While they were in prison, the Charming Police Department was replaced by the San Joaquin Sheriffs, who are led by Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar). Sheriff Roosevelt wastes no time in showing SAMCRO who’s boss. A new city ordinance banning the display of gang colors prohibits the club from wearing their cuts in public. As we have learned many times before, the best way to piss off a biker is to mess with his cut.
Roosevelt isn’t the only new law enforcer in Charming. The always awesome, always creepy Ray McKinnon plays Lincoln Potter, an Assistant District Attorney brought in by the feds to build a RICO case to take down the Sons and their allies once and for all. Potter is a very interesting character. He’s the kind of ADA who wears leather, rides a motorcycle, smokes cigarettes and carries crumpled business cards to use during introductions. Much like Reverend Smith, McKinnon’s character on Deadwood, Potter has a look in his eye that suggests he might have a couple of screws loose.
The writers use Potter to fill Roosevelt and the audience in on some details about the Sons’ time in lock-up. We learn that the Russian mob shivved Jax as payback from screwing them over in the Jimmy O situation. Clay (Ron Perlman) was able to smooth things over and make peace. Now the Sons and the Russians are working together on a gun smuggling deal. Potter also informs Roosevelt that the Feds have a mole inside the Russian organization, which is extremely important to their investigation.
While all of the stuff with the cops and feds is interesting and compelling to watch, it’s really little more than window dressing. The crux of the episode – and I suspect, the season in general – lies within the MC. Specifically, “Out” explores the theme of what it would mean to get out of the club. Clay is battling arthritis in his hands and he suspects he only has one or two more years of leadership ability left in the tank. His goal is to bank as much cash as possible in his remaining time as club president so that he and Gemma (Katey Sagal) can retire comfortably.
Jax is no stranger to the desire of escape. He has vacillated between loyalty to his family and the need to start a new life for virtually the entire series. His time in jail and away from his children sealed the deal. He wants out. “I think you were put in my life to get me out… I’m done with SAMCRO,” he tells Tara, who he is now engaged to. With Clay’s retirement pending, he figures the power vacuum will provide him the opportunity to make his getaway.
Unlike Jax, Unser (Dayton Callie) appears to be better off with the Sons in his life. While they were in jail, his health and mental state took a nosedive. He’s living by himself in a cluttered trailer and he’s stopped taking his cancer medication. Gemma is the only one who comes to check on him. It’s very sad. Unser has always been one of my favorite characters and to hear him lament, “Everything is kinda dying on me,” is pretty heartbreaking.
Fortunately, the premier ends on an up-note with the strongest scene of the episode: Opie (Ryan Hurst) and Lyla’s (Winter Ave Zoli) wedding. Now, I’ve never been to a biker wedding, but in real-life if they are anything like the one portrayed here I’m going to have to make some biker friends immediately. First of all, there are no tuxedos in sight. Even the groom wears his cut during the ceremony. The vows are a bit different as well. Lyla promises not only to be a loving wife, but to also be a loving “old lady”. After the “I do’s”, the entire assembly chants this apparently well-known refrain: “…and treat you as good as my leather and ride you as much as my Harley” How romantic!
“Out” closes the same way it opened: with one of those montage-esque scenes. As Opie and Lyla burn up the dance floor to a cover of “What A Wonderful World,” the other guys get revenge on the Russians. Chibs (Tommy Flanagan), Bobby (Mark Boone Jr.) and Happy (David Labrava) sneak away from the wedding to meet up with the Russian mob’s second in command (who happens to be the FBI mole) for an weapons exchange. After they have the gun in hand, they turn them on their Russian “partners” and blow them to smithereens. Meanwhile, Jax, Clay, and Tig (Kim Coates) take the Russian boss, Putlova (Keith Szarabajka) to a quiet corner of the wedding reception. Jax buries a knife into Putlova’s midsection and whispers “It’s just business.” into his dying ear. The vengeance is complete when the scene moves back to the prison and shows Otto hopping out of his infirmary bed and pushing a scalpel into the ear of the Russian inmate who shanked Jax. “This is for Jax Teller,” he says as he pierces the guy’s brain.
Now that is Sons of Anarchy at its most badass! I might not always agree with the narrative choices the show makes, but I’m really glad it’s back. Even if it isn’t the best show on television anymore (I could make the argument that, at the time it aired, Season Two was the best show on TV), SOA is still better than 95 percent of shows on the air.
Some stats and info about Sons of Anarchy, “Out”
TV SHOW – Sons of Anarchy
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 1
AIRED ON – September 6th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas
CREATED BY – Kurt Sutter
CAST – Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, Mark Boone Junior, Kim Coates, Tommy Flanagan, Theo Rossi, Dayton Callie, Maggie Siff, Ron Perlman, David Labrava, Jimmy Smits, Drea de Matteo
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.